San Francisco (1936)

San Francisco
Directed by W. S. Van Dyke
Written by Anita Loos from the story by Robert E. Hopkins
1936/USA
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Repeat viewing

[box] Waiter at Chicken’s Ball: [referring to the earthquake] Well, we certainly don’t do things halfway in San Francisco.[/box]

The music is the best thing about this glossy but cliche-ridden dramatic musical/disaster flick.

Honorable but unbelieving Blackie Norton (Clark Gable) owns a saloon/cabaret/gambling hall called The Paradise on the wicked Barbary Coast of San Francisco.  His boyhood pal Father Mullin (Spencer Tracy) keeps trying to reform Blackie but is getting nowhere.  One day, starving young singer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald) comes into The Paradise looking for work.  Blackie is taken with Mary and gives her a job that shows off her legs and allows her to belt out “San Francisco” at his joint.  Soon an opera impresario notices that Mary has a beautiful trained soprano voice but Blackie balks at letting Mary out of her contract.  Mary has fallen in love with Blackie and is about to succumb to his advances when it is Father Mullen to the rescue.  When will Heavenly Vengeance rescue the modern-day Sodom from its sinful ways?  How about at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906?

First I should say that I enjoyed the film quite a bit the first time I saw it and gave it a rating of 9/10.  On repeat viewing, I wondered what I was thinking.  While the acting and production are good, the story struck me as extremely hokey.  Basically, we are treated to an epic struggle for the Immortal Souls of Blackie and Mary.  Blackie’s soul can only be won by the mass destruction of the city he loves by earthquake.

I found the earthquake scenes clumsy although they were probably groundbreaking in 1936.  D.W. Griffith reportedly directed the sequence and it shows.  Jeanette MacDonald has some charming numbers including her first rendition of “San Francisco”, a tender version of “Would You?” and two operatic arias.  However, her final performance of “San Francisco” at a climatic point in the plot and right before the building starts shaking reminded me of nothing less than Al Jolson belting out “Swanee”.

San Francisco was the top-grossing film of 1936.  The city was in the news that year as the Golden Gate Bridge was under construction.  The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, including for Best Production, and won the Oscar for Best Sound Recording.

Re-release trailer